Library Blogs

Whip Hand is an award-winning thriller by Dick Francis, about Sid Halley, a jockey who lost a hand after a horse fell on him during a race. He has become a private detective, and in this book he investigates what happened to three horses who were champions, then suddenly failed. He also searches for the con artist who drew Sid's ex-wife into a scam, leaving her to take the blame. She will go to jail for fraud unless he clears her name. Francis, a former jockey, knew the horse racing world extremely well, and it shows in this excellent novel.

Join us this Thursday, September 18th, between 4-6p for our first Third Thursdays at the Library event of the semester!

We partnered with the U-M Library to help us find accessible foraging books and guides, as well as guides for facilitating inherently non-hierarchical spaces. 

From January-September 2025, we were excited to have the assistance of two interns. Latitude Brown and Andy Nakamura helped us improve descriptive metadata and content in several of our digital collections, particularly those that address potentially objectionable or harmful material. This blog post shares their experiences and highlights the projects they worked on.

The Indonesian Cultural Night (ICN) 2025, hosted by the Indonesian Students Association at the University of Michigan (ISA-UM) was truly a night to remember.

On Monday, August 26th, the first day of fall classes, the University of Michigan campus buzzed with excitement.

"Where do I belong?" This question lingered in my mind long after my conversations with Sisi, a 21-year-old Chinese-Spanish student at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF).

My research addresses barriers to accessing treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) among women in Punjab, India.

A recent gift to the library brought a collection of remarkable maps, along with the remarkable story of the man who collected them.

Back in 1964, Dr. Stevo Julius (1929-2025) left his home in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, emigrating to the United States to take up a position in the University of Michigan health system. Upon his death 60 years later, he left behind a substantial legacy. Among the highlights: research breakthroughs on hypertension and metabolic syndrome that helped establish the university as a global leader in cardiovascular research; a research professorship in his name to honor these achievements; a thriving family and a scientific community nurtured over many decades by Julius and his wife, Susan; and a personal history of fighting fascism in his youth as a Jewish member of the Partisan movement during World War II.

The Song of Achilles is Madeline Miller's beautifully written retelling of the Trojan War through the eyes of Patroclus, Achilles' companion and, in this version of the story, lover. Miller writes about the two boys' childhood, their early training by a centaur, and the events that brought them to Troy. She also has much to say about how war changes people. It is a wonderful novel, and will stay in your mind for a long time.